FINALLY, the doors opened and the citizens-to-be came in.
The first person that the citizens-to-be met was the SF Bay Area USCIS Community Relations Officer, Lucee Rosemarie Fan. She was happily directing people to their seats.
I would expect that such an important government official would assign such a humble task to someone else. I looked around and saw other USCIS officers, supervisors, and directors helping the citizens-to-be with the same pride, respect, and efficiency. The USCIS employees "walked" with the citizens-to-be to the very last "step" of the naturalization process.
When the citizens-to-be came to their seats, they found important US Citizenship "tools": an American flag, a booklet of the Declaration of Independence & the US Constitution, a Voter's Registration packet, and the Citizen's Almanac.
While they waited for the cermony to begin, the citizens-to-be chatted with their neighbors, listened to patriotic music, and read their Almanacs. I was happy to see another student from Milpitas, Shu-Wen Chang.
There were many small children in the visitor's gallery. Parents used the long wait to tell their children stories about the flag, George Washington, and coming to America.
More people came and the hall started to fill up. Finally the hall was filled--we were read to begin the Oath Ceremony!
To be continued!
No comments:
Post a Comment